The
CJ Saga and the Expatriates
By Dr Syed Ehtisham
Bath, NY
President Musharraf was sailing
smoothly: lauded by the USA and the West for his
anti-terrorist" measures, economic indicators
sounding optimistic, opposition subdued, BB craving
indulgence, Nawaz minions in disarray, MMA looking
for underhand deals, and the judiciary compliant
when he had to summon the CJ and demand his resignation
or else a reference would be sent to the Supreme
Judicial Council against him.
Musharraf was confident. He had the precedent
of Nawaz hounding CJ Sajjad Ali Shah out of office.
He was also cognizant of the fact that the judiciary
in Pakistan had always complied with the wishes
of the executive.
Chaudhury Iftikhar had shown some traces of independence
in blocking the sale of the steel mill at basement
bargain price and had reprimanded the government
for not doing enough to present the "disappeareds"
in courts. He also knew that once out of office
he would be vulnerable to all kinds of persecution
as the initial complaint of Naeem Bukhari against
him had indicated. He decided to stand his ground
and was subjected to the usual coercive techniques
of solitary confinement in the Army House for
a few hours, transfer to his official residence
under police escort with attendant manhandling,
removal of official vehicles from his residence
and virtual house arrest for several days.
Fortunately for the CJ, there already was a ground
swell of resentment against Musharraf. Part of
the reason was the lengthy tenure of the government
which entails all kinds of real or perceived disfavors,
but the main factor was his unabashed support
of the US government and suppression of violent
fanatics.
From all accounts it would appear that Shaukat
Aziz, an obvious implant of IMF-WB-Global corporate
conjunction, was incensed that the CJ had put
a hurdle in the way of Global corporate take over
of the country's assets. He further advised Musharraf
that the man might entertain petitions of the
opposition and interfere with the "smooth"
conduct of elections.
The reaction of Pakistani expatriates was what
one would expect from such a group. They are a
microcosm of the parent country and bring the
attitudes, mindset, weakness and strength as inevitable
baggage.
Among expatriate groups APPNA (Association of
Pakistani Physicians of North America) occupies
a pride of place. There are some twenty thousand
Pakistani physicians in the USA, though only about
two thousands are APPNA members. The total gross
annual income of all Pak origin is estimated at
ten billion US dollars. That is a significant
amount of money in this country but a great deal
more in Pakistan. No wonder that the high and
mighty in Pakistan pay court to APPNA. The members
reciprocate by being generally pro-government-military
or civilian and suspect they would support MMA
if they came to power. One former president of
APPNA is a minister/adviser under Musharraf. The
lobby group is called PAC-PAC which is dominated
by former APPNA office holders.
The wind of change was blowing so hard that even
PAC-PAC was initially subdued in support of the
reference against the CJ.
APPNA members were being swept in opposition to
Musharraf, so the pro-GOP group developed a clever
stratagem to distract attention. They created
a parallel group which attracted some well meaning
liberals and have arranged a seminar during the
APPNA summer meeting in Orlando Fl at the end
of 06/07 to which among others they have invited
Aitzaz Ahsan, Ahsan Iqbal a Nawaz MNA, the Pakistani
Ambassador to the USA, and representatives of
the MMA and the MQM.
The other significant group of Pakistani physicians
which has co-opted non-physician expatriates is
AANA (Asian American Network Against Abuse) headed
by the passionate and dynamic Dr Amna Buttar.
Amna spearheaded the opposition of expatriate
Pakistanis to the military during a three-month
stay in Pakistan. She was publicly physically
assaulted by security agents though her brother
Javed Buttar is a sitting SC judge.
There are any number of expatriate groups in the
country. Some are trade-union based, others work
on immigration issues and Human Rights and one
is that of the Chaudhurys reportedly led by the
younger brother of Chaudhury Shujaat, president
of PML-Q.
The jury is still out on the CJ affair but the
writing on the wall appears to be that the SC
and the SJC will decide against the reference,
Shaukat Aziz will be fired, and PPP will make
a deal with Musharraf. BB has deliberately kept
her distance from the other opposition parties.
Many MMA leaders have already received favors
from the GOP. They will be able to extract some
more concessions to fundamentalism.
We will live happily ever afterwards.
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